Green Fireworks

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1 Karunesh 08107077

2 Ankit Garg 08107079

3 Kirti kumar 08107094

4 Nitish Sharma 08107078

5 Gurinder 08107016

6 Neeraj Dhankar 08107028

7 Puneet Bhola 08107045

Fireworks

Fireworks are a low explosive pyrotechnic device used primarily for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. The most common use of a firework is as part of a fireworks display. A fireworks event (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnic) is a display of the effects produced by firework devices. Fireworks competitions are also regularly held at a number of places. Fireworks (devices) take many forms to produce the four primary effects: noise, light, smoke, and floating materials (confetti for example). They may be designed to burn with colored flames and sparks including red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and silver. Displays are common throughout the world and are the focal point of many cultural and religious celebrations.

Chemicals Used In Fireworks

Colors in fireworks are usually generated by pyrotechnic stars—usually just called stars—which produce intense light when ignited. Stars contain five basic types of ingredients.

A fuel which allows the star to burn An oxidizer—a compound which produces (usually)

oxygen to support the combustion of the fuel Color-producing chemicals A binder which holds the pellet together. A Chlorine Donor which provides chlorine to

strengthen the color of the flame. Sometimes the oxidizer can serve this purpose.

Harms

-of conventional fireworks

What’s not to love about fireworks? Bright bursts of color, awe-inspiring flashes of light… asthma??!!! More and more people have been voicing their concerns about the health risks (from particle-filled smoke and lung-clogging antimony to heart-toxic Barium and body-contaminating perchlorates) associated with our favorite nighttime spectacles, especially since we’ll be experiencing a ton of them tomorrow for 4th of July. Are there such things as eco-friendly fireworks? Scientists are busy working on them right now, but at the moment, they are too cost-prohibitive to make an appearance in displays this year.

Since we can’t purport to be green fireworks experts, here are the articles that we’ve found to be the most informative on the subject:

When a conventional firework is set off, many pollutants fill the air, such as lead, barium, chromium, chlorates, dioxins, smoke and particulates, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen and sulfur oxides.

Conventional fireworks draw their energy from the oxidation of carbon. Clean fireworks, on the other hand, would get energy from the high temperatures that occur with the formation of nitrogen-rich compounds. Some possible compounds could be tetrazoles and tetrazines, which are made of four nitrogen atoms and either one or two carbon atoms, respectively.

Generally the metals used for making the fireworks attractive and colourful turn poisonous as soon as they are heated. These chemicals include the perchlorates that are used as fuel in the fireworks. Animal studies related to perchlorates, have shown that these cause thyroid problems. Repeated pyrotechnic displays, especially ones that occur every day at theme parks, can take their toll.

Pecchlorate, a type of salt in its solid form, dissolves and moves rapidly in groundwater and surface water. Even in low concentrations in drinking water supplies, perchlorate is known to inhibit the uptake of iodine by the thyroid gland. While there are currently no federal drinking water standards for perchlorate, some states have established public health goals, or action levels, and some are in the process of establishing state maximum contaminant levels. For example, the US Environmental Protection Agency have studied the impacts of perchlorate on the environment as well as drinking water. California has also issued guidance regarding perchlorate us

Going Green -An Introduction

Against the dark black sky it is a show of glittering lights. The entertainment zone added to most occasions. Fireworks clearly make everything bright. Or do they? Global warming is a bitter reality today. Fireworks may make a day out of our nights, but a recent research from the University of Munich published in the journal Angewandte Chemie tell us about the choking truth this entertainment can lead us to.

Technology has improved. Nothing is impossible. Environment friendly firework products can be produced by using more nitrogen rich compounds which changes the chemistry of the product making it more safe with better colour quality and better intensity than the regular fireworks.

“If you have a place where pyrotechnics are shot over and over again for years and years, you will have a build-up of these toxins in the environment,” said Chavez.

In the last few years, researchers have turned up with “greener” alternatives. Currently the eco-friendly fireworks are being used only by the companies that get into regular displays and that too for indoors, since smoke is not permitted.

Role of Chemistry

ScienceDaily (Mar. 19, 2008) — You know it is chemistry when it stinks and goes boom—and entrances us. “No other application in the field of chemistry has such a positive association for the general population as fireworks,” says Thomas Klapötke (University of Munich, Germany). “However, pyrotechnical applications are significant polluters of the environment.” In the journal Angewandte Chemie, Klapötke and his co-author Georg Steinhauser (TU Vienna, Austria) give an overview of how nitrogen-rich compounds and other new strategies could help to limit the danger to the environment.

In addition to fireworks, the field of pyrotechnics includes applications like airbags, signal flares, propellants and charges for civil and military purposes, and the production of nanoporous metal foams for catalysis, hydrogen storage, and insulation.

Scientists are creating fireworks made of chemicals that don't pollute the atmosphere. These environmentally friendly fireworks could also offer better color quality and intensity than conventional fireworks.

Pyrotechnics -With relation to fireworks

Pyrotechnics is the science of materials capable of undergoing self-contained and self-sustained exothermic chemical reactions for the production of heat, light, gas, smoke and/or sound. Pyrotechnics include not only the manufacture of fireworks but items such as safety matches,

oxygen candles, explosive bolts and fasteners, and components of the automotive airbag.

Pyrotechnic devices combine high reliability with very compact and efficient energy storage, in the form chemical energy which is converted to expanding hot gases either through deflagration or detonation. The controlled action of a pyrotechnic device (initiated by any of several means, including an electrical signal, optical signal or mechanical impetus) makes possible a wide range of automated and/or remote mechanical actions; for example, the deployment of safety equipment and services, precisely timed release sequences, etc. The majority of the technical pyrotechnic devices use propellants in their function, a minority use materials that are classified as primary or secondary explosives to obtain very fast and powerful mechanical (mostly cutting) actions; for example cable cutters, exploding bolts, or similar pyrotechnic fasteners.

Individuals responsible for the safe storage, handling, and functioning of pyrotechnic devices are referred to as pyrotechnicians.

Pyrotechnical materials contain an oxidizer and a reducing agent; depending on the application, binding material, propellant charges, coloring agents and smoke- and sound-producing agents can be added. When a firework or other pyrotechnic is set off, it releases a whole cocktail of poisons damaging to humans and the environment: heavy metals like lead, barium and chromium, chlorates, dioxins, smoke and particulates, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen and sulfur oxides.

Pyrotechnic Categories:~

Modern pyrotechnics are, in general, divided into categories based upon the type of effect produced or manufacturing method. The most common categories are:

Airburst - Hanging charges designed to burst into spheres of sparks.

Binary kits - Powders divided into oxidizer and fuel intended to be mixed before use.

Comets (meteor)- Rising shots resembling shooting stars.

Preloaded Comet Preloaded Mine - Tubes containing a lift charge

intended to project stars, sparks, confetti or streamers.

Preloaded Smoke Pot - Cartridges designed to release a mushroom cloud of smoke.

Preloaded Report (concussion tube) - Tubes designed to create a loud report.

Falls - Devices intended to drop like falling stars. Fireballs / Mortar Hits - Containers creating

mushroom clouds of flame. Flame Projector - Columns shooting pillars of flame. Flare (Torch) - Short, high intensity flames or various

colours. Flash Cotton (Sparkle String) - Cotton string

impregnated with nitrocellulose. Flashpaper - Sheets of nitrocellulose resembling

tissue paper. Flash Pot - A container for creating a bright flash and

smoke. Flash Tray (split mine) - A long tube creating a wide,

bright flash. Gerb (including fountain, whistle, and waterfall) - A

fountain of sparks. Lance - A small brightly colored fountain that

produces few sparks. Line Rockets - Whistling gerbs traveling across wires. Multi-Tube Article (multi-shot plate, multiple shot

repeater boards and bombardo boards; designed to function in sequence) - Multiple effects chained together.

Pre-Mixed Powder - Powders intended to create various effects. (Concussions, flashes, etc.)

Squib - A small, pre-matched device typically used to replicate bullet hits.

Strobe - A device intended to create bright repetitive flashes.

Wheel (Saxon) - Tubes that create a spinning wheel of sparks.

A basic theatrical effect, designed to create a jet or fountain of sparks, is referred to as a gerb. A gerb consists of a sufficiently strong and non-flammable container to hold the pyrotechnic compound. Typical pyrotechnic formulations consist either of flammable materials such as nitrocellulose and/or blackpowder or a mixture of a fuel and oxidizer blended in situ. A plug placed at one end of the container with a small orifice, called a choke, constricts the expulsion of the ignited pyrotechnic compound, increasing the size and aggressiveness of the jet.

Various ingredients may be added to pyrotechnic devices to provide colour, smoke, noise or sparks. Special additives and construction methods are used to modify the character of the effect produced, either to enhance or subdue the effect; for example, sandwiching layers of pyrotechnic compounds containing potassium perchlorate, sodium salicylate or sodium benzoate with layers that do not creates a fountain of sparks with an undulating whistle.

In general, such pyrotechnic devices are initiated by a remotely controlled electrical signal that causes an electric match, or e-match, to produce ignition. The remote control may be manual, via a switch console, or computer controlled according to a pre-

programmed sequence and/or a sequence that tracks the live performance via stage cues.

A Step Forward

Lucknow: Growing awareness about polluting firecrackers motivated families, especially children, to neglect them this time around.Consequent to anti-firecracker campaign and awareness drive about ill-effects of bursting harmful firecrackers gaining momentum, manufacturers of firecrackers supplied eco-friendly variants anticipating public demand.

Thousands of residents in this City of Nawabs had taken oath of using only eco- friendly crackers.

Hence, a high demand for eco-friendly firecrackers was witnessed.``We always purchase crackers from this shop only on Diwali. But this time we thought that we won%u2019t be bursting crackers, as it cause lot of pollution. But when we came to know about this brand new crackers being eco-friendly, we rushed to this shop and bought all sorts of such crackers,``said Satish, a resident of Lucknow

``On every Diwali, we try keeping new sorts of fire crackers. But this time we have kept eco-friendly firecrackers, and these crackers are doing pretty good business. These firecrackers don%u2019t need to be ignited. All you have to do is just twist its rim and it will work automatically,`` said Gulshan Azad, a vendor of firecrackers.

EFC’s

This Diwali you have the option of bursting as many crackers as you want, without feeling guilty about polluting the environment. Believe it or not, Eco Friendly Crackers (EFC) are the new buzzword in the market and more than 50 per cent of the buyers are preferring them to conventional crackers this year.

The EFCs, according to Gulsher Azad of Azad Fireworks, only produce light while the sound levels produced by them are way under the decibel limits defined by the Pollution Control Board. “Once they burst, they only produce lights of different colours and spread paper fluffers, besides producing a sound that is not at all irritating to the ears. These can also be burst inside your

room and will does not harm anyone or destroy your belongings’’, said Azad, who is one of the biggest cracker sellers in the state. According to Azad, the demand for such crackers has increased as compared to last year as customers are also becoming aware about environmental concerns.

Surprisingly enough, the EFC stocks are totally made in India and of a much superior quality as compared to Chinese crackers available in the market. “Over 75 per cent of my stock consists of EFC crackers, the sale of which has increased by 30 per cent as compared to last year. Produced by Sivaskasi-based manufacturers, they have also won several awards overseas for their excellent quality and performance of their products. The EFCs include a variety of items - sparklers, rockets, high distance splashes and about 500 other varieties’’, adds Azad. The price range of the EFCs are competitive —from Rs. 15 to Rs. 3200— thus they do not burn a hole in your pockets

The crackers also bear fancy names to attract customers, especially kids. Oxford, Titanic, Sings, National Treasure, Fifty Shots, etc., that are attracting kids and teenagers. The EFCs also have a special range this time - Pooja Special. “These items, like Krishna Leela, Arti, etc., keep firing shots in the air for a long time - 5 to 15 minutes - the time generally taken to perform the Diwali pooja. Thus, you can start firing crackers and offering pooja simultaneously,” explained Azad. He also appealed to the citizens to use branded crackers, no matter where they buy them from. “Besides being safe, they are manufactured under the pollution norms prescribed by

the authorities. The local and conventional crackers are not only unsafe but also add a large number of pollutants to the environment’’, Azad says

Conclusion

To protect the environment & maintain the entertainment of fireworks, we searched the scientific world & all the Pyrotechnics and found that Use of Percholates with Nitrogenous compounds are very effective in reduction of pollution.

Though they are a bit dangerous but with further research and experiments, their volatility can be curbed by use of precise amounts of chemicals.